Jun 4 A Blog If You Aren't Reading You Should: An Interview with Jared Wilson About For the Chruch

Recently, I started reading and following a new blog For the Church. I haven't seen a post yet that isn't applicable to my ministry or my church. So I went right to the source to find out more about it.
Pat: Please introduce yourself.

Jared: My name is Jared Wilson, and I am formerly the pastor of Middletown Springs Community Church in Vermont and currently the Director of Content Strategy for Midwestern Seminary and Managing Editor of Midwestern’s new site for gospel-centered resources called “For The Church” (ftc.co).

Pat: What was the thought behind this blog, why is needed?

Jared: The primary calling is to join the growing development of gospel-centered resources to equip and encourage the local church. Midwestern’s vision is very much local church-centered – the phrase “For The Church” is the seminary’s motto – so this became a natural fit for the purpose of the website.

Pat: Who's the target audience?

Jared: We are aimed primarily at those in vocational ministry, those aspiring to vocational ministry, and mature lay leaders. We feature a few posts regularly that would appeal outside of that demographic, but encouraging and equipping those who pastor, preach, teach, or otherwise lead in the church—whether clergy or laity—is pretty much our wheelhouse.

Pat: How is it different than other “pastoral” blogs?

Jared: I think our variety is rather unique. We have contributors who do not fit one particular demographic. We have megachurch pastors and rural church pastors, decidedly Reformed guys and decidedly notReformed guys, traditional and contemporary and everything in between. So it’s tough to pigeonhole For The Church based on a particular subculture or tribe, as with other ministry sites.

But our strongest asset, I think, is that while so many pastoral ministry sites are aimed mainly at praxis and others aimed primarily at theology, we are aimed mainly at the heart. We have practical stuff and theological stuff, but we exist mainly not for the leader’s “ministry toolkit” but to nourish his soul with the gospel.

Pat: If someone is interesting in being a contributor, how do they go about that?

Jared: We have a handy-dandy submissions page at http://ftc.co/about/submissions that explains a little bit more what we’re looking for and includes an email for submissions.

Pat: Anything else I missed, anything you want to add?

Jared: No, I think that’s good. Thanks, Pat

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